Theme: Windows in the Gospel The Denominations of Christianity The Anglican/Episcopal Church: Common Prayer

Transcription

1 Theme: Windows in the Gospel The Denominations of Christianity The Anglican/Episcopal Church: Common Prayer Sermon preached by Jeff Huber based on a sermon series by Adam Hamilton September 8-9, 2012 at First United Methodist Church, Durango Psalm 119:164; Luke 5:15-16; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 I will praise you seven times a day because all your regulations are just. But despite Jesus instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. VIDEO Episcopal Church Sermon Starter The Anglican/Episcopal Church I invite you to take out of your bulletin your Message Notes and your Meditation Moments. You have our Scripture passages for the day at the top and a space for you to write things down that you want to remember from today's message. I promise that you will learn something new today that you didn't know before. You may hear God's voice prodding you and I hope you will write those things down so you can reflect upon them in the week ahead. Your Meditation Moments continue on that side and on the next is a daily devotion urging you to practice what you hear in the message today. We are going to invite you to pray three times a day which mirrors what you find in the Book of Common Prayer used by the Episcopal and Anglican churches. Today we continue in our series of sermons on the denominations of Christianity. We are trying to understand in this series more about our brothers and sisters in Christ in the various Christian faith traditions. Our aim has been to help us discover more about ourselves and where we have come from. We also are listening carefully for what each tradition might teach us about what it means to be an authentic follower of Jesus today. We are not trying to prove to you that United Methodists are better than any other faith tradition, but instead we are humbly listening and learning from those who are our friends in other faith traditions. Let me remind you briefly about where we have been. In the first two (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 1)

2 sermons in this series we looked at Eastern orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. In the first sermon we recognized that in the beginning of the Christian faith there were not multiple denominations. There was not any one denomination. None of today's churches were the church of the first century and in a sense all of them are. In the first century there were simply, "followers of the way." Followers of the Way These were followers of Jesus Christ and it was over time that the divisions began to develop within the body of Christ. Map of Roman Empire (K from the first week of this series) Those divisions came to a head in 1054 A.D. when the Eastern Christians separated from the Western Christians in the Roman Empire. The Eastern Christians spoke Greek and had different ways of thinking about some matters of faith and theology, but the division was as much cultural as it was theological. Western Christians spoke Latin and they saw the center of the church as Rome. Eastern Christians saw the center of the church as Constantinople which is modern-day Istanbul in Turkey. On the right side of this map you have the area representing what we know as the Eastern Orthodox Church and on the left-hand side was the Western Roman Catholic church. The last two Sundays we have looked at two of the major Protestant reformers and their traditions. The beginning of the Protestant Reformation happened on October 31, 1517 when Martin Luther, a Catholic priest, seeing what he perceived to be abuses and injustice in the church and places where the church's practices didn't line up with what the Bible taught, nailed to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church 95 theses to be debated and discussed. He named places that he believed the church was out of alignment and he believed the church needed to be brought back towards the center of the New Testament roots and what the early church was all about. Luther ignited a wildfire as the Reformation spread throughout most of Europe and the Roman Catholic Church. Many people believed that Luther was right and they began to walk away from the Roman Catholic Church and form new churches or become a part of Protestant churches that were springing up throughout all of Europe. The Roman church was divided between those who were protesting and seeking reform and those who held fast to the church of their childhood and the church of Rome. Those who followed Luther's pattern of reform were known as Lutheran churches and the Lutheran Church that we know of today stems from that beginning. (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 2)

3 19 years after Luther nailed his theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church John Calvin wrote his Institutes of the Christian Religion, one of the first books written during this time. He was the father of the reformed and Presbyterian churches, believing that Martin Luther hadn't gone far enough in the reforms that he proposed. Calvin believed the church needed to move further to get closer to its roots found in the New Testament. Most other Protestant churches find their roots in those two religious traditions. In northern Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark they had a tendency towards the Lutheran tradition. In Switzerland and France and parts of Germany there was a tendency towards Calvin and the Reformed and Presbyterian traditions. England however was a different story. In England the Reformation happened in a different way. Though England is mostly Protestant they didn't consider themselves a part of the Protestant Reformation. Let's then turned to England today and find out how reform began to happen because that very much influenced our country since our founding fathers came out of the English reform movements, or the Puritans. Of course, we as United Methodist find our roots in the Church of England and its reforms from the 1500s and later. Kenneth Scott Latourette, his classic book on church history, says this. (Kelsey Put picture of Kenneth on left of quote) 15th century English Christianity had in it much corruption and decay. Many of the devout were saying that the monasteries had outlived their usefulness and that the monks were idle and indifference. Hundreds of the clergy had concubines or mistresses and many of the clergy were focusing more on their income streams then on the sharing of the gospel. John Wycliffe (Kelsey these are pictures of the historical figures named that you can find in my Worship Transfer folder.) It was within this setting that many leaders within the church were calling for reform. One of the persons calling for reform in the English church was John Wycliffe. He lived in the 1300s, hundred and 50 years before Martin Luther. He called for Reformation and he translated the Bible from Latin into English which was the first English translation of the New Testament. Each copy was hand copied because there was no printing press in those days. Wycliffe was condemned as a heretic and 44 years after his death his bones were disinterred (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 3)

4 and they were burned and scattered in the river for the heresies that he promoted, which were simply a call to reform. William Tyndale William Tyndale also believed that the church needed reform during this time period. He spent time with Martin Luther and others and developed a new translation of the Bible from Latin into English. His was able to be printed on the printing press which was invented during his life time. The Tyndale Bible became popular in England and he himself was put to death at the stake by the King in England who was protecting the church from people he considered to be heretics. The Church of England finally broke from the Roman church but it wasn't because of people like Tyndale and Wycliffe who were calling for theological reform and a return to the New Testament. The break came because of something much more personal and political. King Henry VIII was having a hard time producing a son to inherit the throne. Maybe you remember this story from your history classes in high school or college. King Henry VIII King Henry VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon. She was pregnant seven times and she miscarried most of them. Some were born but died shortly after their birth. Only one girl survived and her name was Mary. Given the fact that he could not produce a male heir through Catherine of Aragon and the fact that he had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, the King sought an annulment of his marriage from the Pope. He sent emissaries to the Pope to ask for the annulment but the Pope refused. When the Pope refused the King took matters into his own hands. The Kings of England had for some time been troubled by the meddling of the Pope with affairs on English soil. They also were irritated at having to send money back to Rome. The King had the Archbishop of Canterbury declare his former marriage to Catherine of Aragon null and void and then unite him in marriage with Anne Boleyn. When this happened the Pope in Rome excommunicated the King of England. When the Pope excommunicated the King, the King went to Parliament and had them declare that the Pope was no longer the head of the Church of England. He placed himself as the head of the church in England. King Henry VIII would be known as the head of the church. Henry did not seek to create a separate church that was Protestant, but his idea was that the Church of England would continue to be Catholic however its (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 4)

5 authority would come from England and not from Rome. It would be the Catholic Church of England and not the Roman Catholic Church, however there was a Protestant Reformation beginning throughout the rest of Europe because this happened in the early 1500s. King Edward VI King Henry's son took over the throne of England after Henry's death. His name was Edward VI and he began to rule when he was nine years old. He was very sickly and only lived to be 16 years old. Others helped to mentor and groom him for the throne and they tended to be Protestants, influenced in large part by Calvin on the main continent of Europe. King Edward VI then lead the church in a Protestant direction. He had developed a book of common prayer so people in England could pray and worship with their own liturgies. He decreed that bishops and pastors could marry and he declared some of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church outside of the faith of the people of Church of England. Queen Mary I England had now gone from being Roman Catholic to English Catholic to Protestant in a period of 25 years. Edward died when he was 16 years old and his half-sister Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon and King Henry VIII came to the throne. Edward had tried to remove her from the line of succession but she rallied her forces and took the throne by force by beheading Lady Jane Grey who had been named the Queen by Edward and those who were Protestant leaders in the Church of England. Mary was a staunch Roman Catholic. Mary decided that she would take the Church of England and put it back under the authority of the Church of Rome. So now the church had gone from Roman Catholic to English Catholic to Protestant and now returned to Roman Catholicism all in a period of 25 years. Queen Mary had Protestant leaders in the Church of England arrested and had many of them put to death. 300 of them were put to death under her reign which earned her the name that she is still remembered by today. Do you remember her name? Bloody Mary, the Queen of Scots, was responsible for a massacre whose memory lives on to this day. Queen Elizabeth After just a few years on the throne Mary passed away and her half-sister, Elizabeth I came to the throne. Mary was a wise woman and she understood at this point that her country was in religious chaos. There was a real possibility of (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 5)

6 religious civil war over the question of which Christianity would prevail. She recognized that half of her country was staunch Roman Catholic and half of her country was Protestant. She tried to navigate a path between the two which would make either side truly happy but would keep the peace. She began a path down the Latin term of Via Media. You recognize that term because we talk about it in the United Methodist Church as our roots are in the Church of England. Elizabeth navigated a middle way between the Catholics and the Protestants. The Book of Common Prayer developed for the Church of England had elements that looked Catholic and elements that looked Protestant. The theology of the church began to draw from both traditions. No one was completely happy with this arrangement, but they were not so unhappy that they would kill each other. This managed to keep the peace for the 45 years that Queen Elizabeth I reigned on the throne. She managed to walk the middle path and hold together both Catholic and Protestant elements in the Church of England. King James I After her death James I came to the throne and he despised both Protestantism, at least the Calvinistic version, and Catholicism. He clung to the way in the middle that became known as Anglican. He also recognized the most popular English Bible in the late 1500s, the Geneva Bible, which is the equivalent of today's NIV study Bible or the life application and NLT Bible that we use in worship. The preface to this book was written by John Calvin and many of the notes within the Bible were influenced by Calvin. King James didn't like Calvin and he determined that a new Bible was needed that was a Calvinist and was a Catholic, but something in the middle. So what Bible translation did he authorize? Yes, King James I commissioned the King James Version of the Bible. The King James Bible, which has played such an important role in our own country, was actually a Bible that was attempting to navigate the via media. It was a Bible of the middle way between Protestants and Catholics. The idea of the via media still influences Anglicanism and Episcopalianism to this very day and it was part of the conversation that I had with Rev. Ken Malcolm, the new priest at St. Mark's Episcopal Church here in Durango. I asked him to explain to us who Episcopalians are and this is what he said. VIDEO Who are Episcopalians Episcopalianism (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 6)

7 So you will see both the Protestant and Catholic traditions as part of the Anglican or Episcopalian churches today. If you visit an Episcopalian church today you will know that it looks more Roman Catholic than any other Protestant tradition. I even had a friend who is a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church tell me that he goes to, "Catholic Church light." It draws from many of the Roman Catholic tradition and at the same time draws from many traditions in the Protestant churches. Over the last few weeks I've been showing you charts about how different denominations understand church history and their role in it. Last week I showed you this chart. Presbyterian Timeline In this diagram, the Orthodox and Catholic churches strayed away from the original apostolic church and Luther and the Lutheran church was trying to bring it back closer to the original New Testament church. Presbyterian didn't believe that Luther had moved far enough and so they pressed the reforms even further to try and line the church back up with what the apostles meant for the church to be about. Let me show you how Anglicans or Episcopalians might see this chart. Episcopalian Timeline Episcopalians thought that Lutherans and Presbyterians went too far and threw the baby out with the bathwater. Anglicans try to navigate that middle way in between Catholic and Protestant in their approach to the gospel. As you may know, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was an Anglican priest. This was his tradition in the 1700s he felt that his own church needed reform and revitalization. Much of what we find in our United Methodist tradition comes straight out of the Anglican tradition. Anglicans have 39 articles of religion which are their basic faith statements. Wesley simplified than the 25 but he kept those 25 virtually word for word from the Anglican tradition. The orders of service were very similar in Anglican churches to what we do in United Methodist churches, though once again Wesley simplify things and so the order of service are not quite complex in Methodist churches. The basic creeds are the same in both Anglican and Methodist churches. In the Anglican tradition it was said that there were three fundamental ways in which we understand what we believe and how we practice our faith. This is called the three-legged stool in Anglicanism. Three Legged Stool in Anglicanism (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 7)

8 The Scriptures are the first and most important basis for our faith and practice. That is represented by the first leg in the stool. The second leg is tradition and how Christians have understood the faith throughout the centuries. The third leg is a reason and applying our intellect. The three-legged stool in Anglicanism is Scripture, tradition and reason. Wesleyan Quadrilateral John Wesley added a fourth and that was experience. This is what we call our Wesleyan quadrilateral Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. These four are the ways that we know God and that we understand how we make decisions about our faith and our practice. We will learn more about Methodism in a couple of weeks, but I wanted you to see some of these connections. There are many things that we can learn from our Episcopal friends, but there is one thing I want to focus on for the rest of our time together today. It ties back into the book which is the most important book after the Bible in the Anglican or Episcopal tradition, and that is the Book of Common Prayer. This book, like our hymnal or our book of worship in the United Methodist Church, brings together orders of worship and prayers and the Psalms, private devotions and public times of worship. I asked Rev. Ken Malcolm if you explain to our congregation the importance of the Book of Common Prayer and this is what he said. VIDEO The Book of Common Prayer lex orandi: lex credendi = As you pray, so you believe (put this below the picture of the Book of Common Prayer) The law of prayer is the law of belief. This is very important, that as Rev. Malcolm said, as the Anglican Church was developing it didn't develop a whole series of books which outline theology or use all of the liturgies in each of the churches. Instead, it developed a book of worship and prayer. That recognized that at the heart of the Christian life is praise and prayer and humbling ourselves before God. There is a recognition that you can have all of the theology right and lay out every single doctrine so it is consistent, you can dot every i and cross every t, you can even have the entire Bible memorized and still have missed what it means to be a Christian. To be a Christian is to humble yourself before God. To be a Christian is to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. To be a Christian is to make yourself available to God in prayer and say, "Here I am Lord. Use me. Do with me (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 8)

9 what you will." To be a Christian is to invite the Potter to shape you like clay and that is what was recognized in the Anglican tradition. When they formed the basis of their faith, it wasn't writing a new book of theology. The Bible and the traditions of the church would be that for them. Instead, they wrote a book which encouraged people to pray and to go directly to God and to worship the Lord with all of their hearts. That is part of what we remember from the Anglican tradition. Our friends who are Episcopalian talk about the daily offices of the church which are times of prayer. This came out of the Benedictine tradition in the Catholic Church where the monks prayed seven times a day. Those seven times come from the Scriptures. We read these words today from Psalm 119. I will praise you seven times a day because all your regulations are just. The Benedictine took that seriously and so seven times a day they pray and give praise to the Lord. They start with lauds at the beginning of the day. That word simply means praise and it is done in the morning to begin one day. There was a midmorning prayer and then there was sext which cut the day in half and it happens at the "sixth hour," which is what the word sext means. You would pause and remember your calling as you moved into the afternoon, having spent time in the Psalms in prayer. There was midafternoon prayer and there was evening prayer which happened in Sunset which was called Vespers. Finally, there is compline which is the prayer that you pray just before you go to bed. Then you would wake up in the middle of the night and you would pray again so that you prayed seven times a day. The Anglicans have focused on three of these times when they encourage their people to pray using the Book of Prayer. Anglicans are encouraged to start your day off with lauds in which you read the Psalms and spend time in prayer. At noontime there is the sext prayer in which you stop in the middle of your day and read the Scriptures and give prayer and praise and honor to God. Compline is encouraged at the end of the day before you go to bed. Lauds (K use a picture of someone praying to the left of this slide.) Sext Compline If you look at your Meditation Moments this week I am inviting you to actually try this in your own life. You can start your day with morning prayer and we have given you some direction for that time. There is a Scripture for you to (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 9)

10 read each day and it will take you only about five or 10 minutes to stop and do this each morning. In the middle of the day we encourage you to stop and pray one of the Psalms, to give thanks for what is happened in the morning and then to pray for God's direction in the afternoon. How would your day be different, if in the middle of your work day you paused to read the Scriptures and to reflect upon the morning and ask God to direct you in the afternoon? If you are worried because you don't have a Bible to take with you to work, then please take one of our pocket New Testaments. This has the Psalms in it and so you can use it wherever you are traveling during the day, whether at work or at school. Find a quiet place in the middle of your day, whether it is at work or at school or at home, to pray and see how your day might be different, especially going forward. We didn't give you Vespers but instead we gave you compline so you could pray before you go to bed. We encourage you to read the Scriptures once more, look over the day and reflect upon it and asked for God's forgiveness for the places where you failed to do what you should've done or did those things you didn't do, and then commit your life to the Lord's keeping as you go to sleep that night. I hope you will try this in the coming week using your Meditation Moments and the Psalms. The other Scriptures at the top of your Message Notes teaches how important prayer is in our daily lives. I want you to notice the reading from Matthew's gospel that we read this morning. But despite Jesus instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. I want you to think about this for just a minute. Jesus is constantly praying in the Gospels. After he has been baptized he goes into the wilderness to pray. When he gets ready to choose his first disciples, he prays all night before he makes that decision. When he is exhausted after giving himself in ministry the other people through preaching and teaching and healing, notice what he does in the end of the day. What does he do? He felt the same way that you and I feel when we get to the end of the day. There are days that you go home from work and you are in a bad mood and you are tired and exhausted. You bite somebody's head off when you get home or you kick the cat or you belittle the dog. Jesus didn't do those things. Do you know (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 10)

11 what he did? He went to find a quiet place and he prayed. When Jesus was struggling with his future and it was time for him to set his mind resolutely towards Jerusalem, even though he knew it might lead to his death, he went to the Mount of Transfiguration and he prayed. When he got to Jerusalem and he was there for the last week of his life, the Gospels tell us that every week that night he went to the Mount of Olives and he prayed. Where did they find Jesus the night that he was arrested? What was he doing when they arrested him? He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. When Jesus is hanging on the cross, do you remember what he is doing? He was praying to the Lord. If Jesus, the divine Son of God, needed to pray like that, then what does it tell us about our own lives? I'm convinced that many of us can know all of the right things in our head, but if we are not praying and opening ourselves up to God and yielding ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, then we will utterly miss the mark. It is in the life of worship and prayer and praise that our lives are transformed into the image of Christ, not in the study of theology, as important as that is. Our theology ought to influence our prayer and if I believe that God is the King and Lord of my life, then I ought to be in prayer and in worship every weekend. We need to be seeking the Lord every single day if we truly believe that God is God and we are not. Several weeks ago I talked to a couple that used to attend our church when they lived in Durango. They had moved to another city and he called asking me for the name of a counselor in the Denver area because his marriage was falling apart. I asked them if they had found a church to worship at and he said they just couldn't find one like First United Methodist Church and they finally gave up and they haven t been going to church anywhere. I asked if the two of them were praying together at any time during the week. He said that when they stopped going to church their prayer life stopped as well. I asked him to tell me what his marriage was like when they were here in Durango and they were attending worship every weekend together. He and his wife both said that it was great and they felt close to each other and close to God and it was wonderful. I told him that I realized they were living in a different place but maybe they should look at what had changed more than anything else. I know they moved to a different place and they both got different jobs but the one thing that really changed was that they stopped praising God and they stopped having a central common place to focus their worship and pray together anymore. (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 11)

12 When that happens you are sort of left to your own devices. We are by nature selfish and self-centered and we focus on all the things the other person isn't doing that we want them to do. We get irritated and upset and we don't find a peace and presence that helps us get through those times. We don't have the strength sometimes to go on and we forget who we are and what we are really about. It all becomes about me and how I feel and whether you are making me happy as opposed to asking, "What does God want from me? What is God s calling on my life? What ultimately is most important?" Prayer centers us. Worship keeps us on track. Prayer yields us to God's Spirit and it opens us up to God s will. As we pray the Scriptures, we are reminded that, "Love is patient and kind. It is not envious or arrogant or boastful or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. Love does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. Love never ends," even through the tough times. I think about this passage from the apostle Paul that we read today from First Thessalonians. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Paul was talking as a man who was in prison and would be beheaded for his faith when he wrote these words. I can certainly understand why he would never stop praying in that situation and that he would really appreciate the Anglican tradition of stopping and praying several times a day. This is God's will that we would be people of prayer. Many of us have things that we are afraid of in life. We walk through life and it's hard not to be afraid. We listen to the news and we look around us and we see people who are struggling. We are afraid of what is going to happen to the economy and the stock market on a daily basis until we get hourly updates on our phones. We are worried about our retirement funds and four dollar a gallon gasoline. We are worried about whether we are going to get sick or if there will be another terrorist attack. There are lots of things to worry about which is why the apostle Paul says this in Philippians. Do not be anxious about anything. How can you not be anxious about anything when there is so much to be anxious about? He goes on and says this. But in everything, by prayer and supplication, make your request (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 12)

13 known to God, and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Of course there are things to be afraid of, but what happens when you get on your knees and you honestly say, "Oh God, you are my Shepherd and I am one of your lambs. I belong to you. I rest in your love and your care and I know that no matter what happens in my life you are still King and God of all. I know that you will walk with me and you will never leave me or forsake me." What happens when you say, "God, whatever happens, I yield myself to you and pray that you would use me for your glory and honor"? How might this change your life when you start the day praising God and asking for his direction? How might it help you sleep better if you end your day by honestly and simply lifting your heart to God and saying, "God, I know there are times today that I disappointed you. I know there things that I should've done differently. I know there are things that I shouldn't have even done. Help me to see what those are right now"? I guarantee you that you if you sit in silence with that prayer before you go to bed God will bring things to your heart and mind that you wouldn't have even thought of. You will get that self-examination in the light of prayer and he will teach you and help you let it go. We often ruminate over the day as we toss and turn in bed, but what would happen if you brought those things to God in prayer? God promises to bring you a sense of peace and comfort even as you ask for forgiveness. An old gospel hymn came into my mind and heart this last week as I was thinking about prayer and the importance of prayer in our lives. Oh what peace we often forfeit, Oh what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer. The Christian life is found in prayer. It is where we find the strength, the power, the perseverance and the grace to be the people that God has called us to be. That is what our friends who are Anglican and Episcopalian remind us of. Lex orandi: Lex credenda - how you pray shapes what you believe. I was thinking about how this Tuesday is the 12th anniversary of September 11. I found myself thinking about the people who were trapped in offices and (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 13)

14 trapped on airplanes that day and wondering what role prayer played. It is hard for us to know. There are some recordings because people made telephone calls from those buildings and from the airplanes. I went back and started reading the accounts of some of those phone calls that were made. I know you have heard this account before, but it is good to remember on this day as we think about 9/11 and prayer. Todd Beamer was on flight 93 along with other passengers who were contacting people by cell phone when they discovered that their plane was likely headed for the Capitol building in Washington DC. Todd had tried to reach his wife by phone but was unable to reach her. He contacted a telephone operator and asked her to take a message for him to pass on to his wife about his love for his wife. He asked the operator for information about what was happening and what she knew from the news. He and other passengers heard about the airplanes which had been flown into the twin towers and so he told the operator that those on their airplane were going to force the plane down before it got to its target. The telephone operator transcribed this conversation and after they were done talking Todd set the telephone down. The last thing she heard was a group of men near the telephone reciting Psalm 23 and then praying together the Lord's Prayer. The last words that no doubt many of you have heard from that prayer were, "God be with this. Jesus be with us. Let's roll." Praying the Psalms and approaching the Lord in prayer, no matter how dark the circumstances may be, can help us find hope and strength. We find life in prayer because it is the essence of our faith. The Scriptures call us to this kind of faith and call us to be people of prayer. I invite you and encourage you to be that people of prayer. Would you bow your head and pray with me? Prayer Oh God, we confess to you that there are days that go by when we have not been on our knees, we have not approached you in prayer. There are days when we have lived as though we are Lord of our own lives, masters of our own destiny, where we didn't stop to reflect upon your will or understand your way. Many times we have drifted. We have felt empty, drained, lost, ashamed and broken, all because we didn't carry everything to you in prayer. Teach us to pray the Psalms. Teach us to pause in the middle of our day to offer our lives to you and invite your spirit to work in us. Help us to be people of (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 14)

15 prayer and praise and worship. Oh God, you know that in this room there are some who feel empty right now. Their marriages are falling apart and they are in need of your spirit to bring healing. There are some in this room who are afraid. They are facing illness or other situations that bring fear. Some have lost their jobs and they are uncertain about their future. Lord, be their peace. Help them not to be anxious but to trust in you. Guide them every step on the way. Help them to feel your presence in the midst of anxious moments. God, there are some in this room who have drifted far away from you. They have done things they wish they hadn't done and said things they wish they hadn't said. Heal them. Forgive them. Wash them clean and make a new. We pray for our friends and family who have been affected by the hurricanes of the last week and who are fearful for the next storm that is forming. We pray oh God for healing and hope and courage and strength for them. We pray especially today for those in our nation most affected by the losses experienced on September 11 th. Heal our land. Guide our leaders. Help us O Lord to know that you hear our prayers. We offer ourselves to you now. Help us to mean what we say as we join together in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples praying Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 15)

16 Sermon Series: Windows in the Gospel: The Denominations of Christianity Sermon Title: The Anglican/Episcopal Church: Common Prayer Psalm 119:164; Luke 5:15-16; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 I will praise you seven times a day because all your regulations are just. But despite Jesus instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Things I d like to remember from today s sermon: Meditation Moments This week we have prepared the Study Guide with the idea that you would use it to help you observe three of the daily offices of prayer from the Episcopal tradition: Morning, Mid-day and Bedtime prayers. As you use these, remember the idea of lex orandi: lex credendi your (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 16)

17 faith is shaped by your prayers, and your prayers should be shaped by your faith. Episcopalians and Catholics use the Psalms as an important tool in daily prayer, and so each day you will be directed to pray and to read the Psalms. May you be blessed as you practice the discipline of praying the daily offices! Monday, September 10 Lauds (morning): Read Psalm 1 to begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day. Pray that you might be like the one who delights in the law of the Lord. Read Matthew 5:13-16 and pray that you might be salt and light today. Invite God to guide and use you today, lift up your needs to the Lord, and then conclude your prayer time with the Lord s Prayer. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 2. Focus on final line of the Psalm. What does this mean for you? Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day for the blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day for which you need God s forgiveness or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 3 aloud, focusing on verses 3-5. Tuesday, September 11 Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day, then read Psalm 5. How do verses 4, 5 and 6 call you to live today? Read again verses and pray that you might be like the one who takes refuge in God, especially as our nation reflects on the events of 9/11 eleven years ago today. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 6. Have you ever felt as the Psalmist does in this prayer? Note the confidence of verse 9. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day. Pause to consider anything in the day for which you need God s forgiveness or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 4 aloud. Are there any false gods in your life? Note the Psalm began with the Psalmist in fear but what has changed in verse 8? Wednesday, September 12 Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day and for God s goodness, then read Psalm 9:1-11. How do verses 1 and 2 call you to live today? Pray that God will help you live these words today. Lift up your concerns to God. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 7:1-10. Have you ever felt as though enemies were seeking to wound you? Invite God to search your mind and be your shield. Read aloud verse 17. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day for the blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day for which you need God s forgiveness or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Step outside and look up at the stars, then read Psalm 8 aloud. Thursday, September 13 Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day and for God s goodness, then read Psalm 18:25-36 and verse 46. How do verses call you to live today? Pray that you can live this way. Lift up your concerns to the Lord. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 25:1-11. Invite God to guide you in his truth and to direct your path the rest of the day. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day and blessings. Pause to consider anything in the (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 17)

18 day for which you need God s forgiveness or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 16 aloud. Friday, September 14 Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving for the day and for God s goodness, then read Psalm 100. Read Romans 12 and pray that you can live this way. Lift up your concerns to the Lord ending with the Lord s Prayer. Sext (mid-day): Give thanks for your meal and for the morning that has passed. Read Psalm 23 making this your prayer. Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day for the blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day for which you need God s forgiveness or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 103 aloud. Which of these verses speaks most clearly to you tonight as you pray? Saturday, September 15 Lauds (morning): Begin with a prayer of thanksgiving and for the day and for God s goodness. Read Psalm 118: 1 and 24. What comes to your mind today as you think about God making this day? What is there for you to rejoice about in this moment? Focus your mind on that as you close in prayer, repeating verse 24 as you end. Sext (mid-day): Read Psalm 118: Give thanks for your meal and the morning that has passed. What is one way you can praise or exalt God this afternoon? Pray that you might do that as you end your time of prayer Compline (bed-time): Thank God for the day and for its blessings. Pause to consider anything in the day for which you need God s forgiveness or help in order to learn from your experiences and live differently tomorrow. Read Psalm 118: Read verse 29 again aloud and may that be your prayer as you fall asleep tonight. (Sermon preached by Jeff Huber September 8-9, 2012 page 18)